Finally, somebody saw the Charlotte Bobcats play basketball on TV. Sure, the Miami Heat completed a four-game first-round playoff sweep of the Bobcats this week, but the interest and awareness generated by the series can only help Michael Jordan’s franchise.

An average audience of 85,500 people in the Charlotte TV market watched the four playoff games, according to Nielsen Media Research. The average is at least a little higher than that because audience and ratings numbers are not yet available for the Bobcats’ regional cable network partner, SportSouth. Fox-owned SportSouth showed games two, three and four, which also aired on national outlets TNT (games two and four) and ESPN (game three). ABC showed the opening game (seen locally on WSOC) and its rights agreement with the NBA prevents any simulcasts by regional cable networks.

Miami closed the series Monday at Time Warner Cable Arena with a 109-98 win. TNT’s broadcast was watched by 86,080 people in Charlotte, according to Nielsen. There are 2.8 million viewers in the Charlotte audience.

Charlotte ranked last in the 30-team NBA in TV ratings and audiences (6,000 people watched games on SportSouth, on average) during 2012-13. And, as sister publication SportsBusiness Journal reported, diminished interest in the Milwaukee Bucks this season allowed the Bobcats to avoid having the lowest TV interest in the league for the first time in five years.

NASCAR bested the Bobcats on Saturday in a head-to-head matchup. Fox affiliate WJZY had the prime-time race, watched by 118,810 people. Other sports highlights from the weekend included Atlanta Braves baseball on Fox SportSouth (hovering in the range of 30,000 viewers for games against the Cincinnati Reds) and the Los Angeles Clippers-Golden State Warriors game Sunday (95,740 viewers on WSOC, better than all but one of the Bobcats-Heat games). Interest in the Clippers-Warriors game was heightened by controversy over Donald Sterling’s racist remarks, which grew into the biggest news story of the past week as details emerged and players and owners reacted.

Fred Whitfield, the Bobcats' president, told me after the game four loss Monday the team has improved enough to warrant interest and attention, gains expected to be realized as the franchise cashes in on the nostalgia and enthusiasm for the return of the Hornets. From 1988 to 2002, the local NBA team was the Hornets; George Shinn relocated the team to New Orleans in an arena dispute and took the name. Since then, a new owner has bought the New Orleans team and renamed it Pelicans, making Hornets available for Jordan's franchise.